Reaching out: Modi eyes Mamata, raises Cong's worries

Dailybhaskar.com|Apr 19, 2012, 11:37AM IST

New Delhi: BJP leader and Gujarat Chief Minister on Thursday congratulated her West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee for being named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the world.

Modi took to microblogging site Twitter to express his congratulatory wishes to Didi. "Congratulations to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on being named among 100 most influential people of the world by Time Magazine," he tweeted.

If the political experts are to be believed, Modi's tweets are likely to give the Congress the jitters.

Modi's gesture for Mamata may be the BJP's way of reaching out to a UPA ally for forming new alliances.

It assumes significance since the West Bengal CM is a ruling UPA ally while Narendra Modi is the BJP's unofficial 'PM candidate'.

Gujarat CM's wishes for TMC supremo comes at a time when media and political circles are abuzz with the possibility of formation of a Third Front by the regional parties, including the TMC. Now, the talks of the emergence of a Third Front will only boil further.

Notably, Mamata's decision to accept Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal's invitation to his swearing-in ceremony had fuelled distrust into the Congress- Trinamool relationship. However, the TMC chief had laid to rest all the speculations a possible withdrawal of her party's support to the UPA.

She, however, made it clear that if her party is humiliated, she would have to take a “decision”, apparently referring to the continuance of support to the UPA government.

Mamata sometime ago joined hands with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for development of the eastern region.